


Whatever that means.

by AuriferousEyes



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Sad, Toph Beifong-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:47:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27273655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuriferousEyes/pseuds/AuriferousEyes
Relationships: Toph Beifong/Sokka
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16
Collections: Genuary 2021





	Whatever that means.

Toph is earth

She is stone.

But some days the Blind Bandit feels like dirt. The sun doesn't touch her skin, nor the wind stroke her hair. There is an ache deep in her chest when she sees the children. They play wherever she goes. In the city alleys or village streets. Juvenile games that require nothing but a ball, or stick, or sight, or friends, or parents that don't treat you as breakable.

Toph hates them. The children who are children. She has never been one of them. She never will be. The ache in her heart grows to a cavern and she loses herself in it. In there it is dark. In there no one can see.

Those days her zingers cut deeper. Her friends feel the pain behind them. She is lashing out and they are tied to the stocks, the price they pay for being privy to her pain.

She chides Aang's silliness and strokes Zuko's temper. Katara avoids her at all costs, afraid of her own reaction. The camp is subdued, quieted under the flames of their Earthbender

The only one that stands to her is Sokka. When her expression strikes fear of God into the hearts of others, he tousles her hair. When she stomps a pyramid of stone, cutting her off from the world he sits with his back to the rocky surface. He pretends not to hear her cry.

When she emerges he has set aside food for her, angled on the edge of the firepit for easy access. She snaps at him, and he returns it, but doesn't rise. She snaps harder, and he yawns. She sinks her teeth in him, shaking with her whole being. She tries to draw blood, to break bone. He sits beside her and asks her to transform pebbles into spheres. As she emerges from the cavern he teaches her how to play marbles.

The way they roll across the Earth's surface feels like a finger down Toph's back.

He doesn't treat her like porcelain, waiting for the break. He doesn't treat her like stone, unfeeling and unmoving. She's allowed to be Toph. Whatever that means


End file.
